Neural signatures of promotion versus prevention goal priming: fMRI evidence for distinct cognitive-motivational systems.

Allison M Detloff,Timothy J Strauman,Ahmad R Hariri

doi:10.1017/pen.2019.13

Abstract

Regulatory focus theory (RFT) postulates two cognitive-motivational systems for personal goal pursuit: the promotion system, which is associated with ideal goals (an individual's hopes, dreams, and aspirations), and the prevention system, which is associated with ought goals (an individual's duties, responsibilities, and obligations). The two systems have been studied extensively in behavioral research with reference to differences between promotion and prevention goal pursuit as well as the consequences of perceived attainment versus nonattainment within each system. However, no study has examined the neural correlates of each combination of goal domain and goal attainment status. We used a rapid masked idiographic goal priming paradigm and functional magnetic resonance imaging to present individually selected promotion and prevention goals, which participants had reported previously that they were close to attaining ("match") or far from attaining ("mismatch"). Across the four priming conditions, significant activations were observed in bilateral insula (Brodmann area (BA) 13) and visual association cortex (BA 18/19). Promotion priming discriminantly engaged left prefrontal cortex (BA 9), whereas prevention priming discriminantly engaged right prefrontal cortex (BA 8/9). Activation in response to promotion goal priming was also correlated with an individual difference measure of perceived success in promotion goal attainment. Our findings extend the construct validity of RFT by showing that the two systems postulated by RFT, under conditions of both attainment and nonattainment, have shared and distinct neural correlates that interface logically with established network models of self-regulatory cognition.

Highlights

Goal pursuit is among the most fundamental of human psychological activities (Miller, Galanter, & Pribram, 1960)
To account for the likelihood that some regions might be responsive to particular kinds of priming stimuli only among individuals characterized by high or low levels of chronic perceived success in personal goal pursuit, the promotion and prevention success scores were included in these analyses as covariates
We predicted significant activation for idiographic goal priming above and beyond activation to yokedcontrol words and that these activation patterns would differ based on goal type and perceived goal attainment (“match” vs. “mismatch”)

Summary

Introduction

Goal pursuit is among the most fundamental of human psychological activities (Miller, Galanter, & Pribram, 1960). (Scholer & Higgins, 2008), RFT emphasizes strategic pursuit of higher order goals whereas BIS/BAS refers primarily to spatiotemporal, evolutionarily determined approach/avoidance behaviors (Depue & Collins, 1999; Strauman & Wilson, 2010). Attaining or not attaining a particular self-guide was postulated to represent a specific psychological situation (Lewin, 1951), and self-regulation in reference to ideal and ought self-guides illustrates the motivational and affective distinctions between promotion and prevention goal pursuit. Individuals would be expected to vary in the strength of neural responses to cues for promotion versus prevention goal pursuit, just as they have been observed to vary with regard to motivational, affective, and behavioral consequences of promotion or prevention goal activation. Scult et al (2017) used a monetary incentive delay task to activate reward circuitry and observed that promotion orientation was inversely correlated with ventral striatum response to gain cues

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Conclusion